Creative Thinking Book

I just spent a week in the sleepy village of Barra de Potosi on the west coast of Mexico. Up the road is the bustling tourist beach community of Zihuatenejo where the action resides.  Barra is more like a zen experience. I stayed with friends in a camp (as in cool) little b & b on an unpaved village lane. A Trip Advisor review had given it a poor rating because they said it had bugs and seemed run down. I reflected on how frequently people impose expectations into just about any situation without regard to where exactly they are. I was  happy we had hot water, clean sheets, and mosquito netting, which we did. Furthermore  the French Toast was remarkable.  But that is not what made this entire setting memorable. read more »

I have been attending a circle on conscious evolution sponsored by Barbara Marx Hubbard. The thrust of this is that we are perhaps in the most profound time of recorded human history (that we know about). it is referred to as a cross over period in which we are birthing a new consciousness. What that means is that we do not know exactly what is coming next. Just about everybody I meet feels that we are not in just in ordinary times but extra ordinary times.

There are so many choices now with the expansion of the internet as a news media and the proliferation of devices especially the smartphone. What this does is increase the connectivity but it also means that a much of what I don’t want or need can also impact me. Basically it translates into the apparent speed up of time. I find that I have to practice what  I write about which is to trust my intuition and get more and more used to it as the primary guide. This is a conscious and critical thinking choice.

We don’t seem to get much training in critical thinking. What I mean by that is not just how to solve problems but the whole idea of what to think about in the first place. Ask yourself if the way you are spending your time is enhancing your well being or detracting from it. If the latter think about changing.

Here are five ideas I try to  employ now.

(1)  Make feelings my goals.  If am  feeling happy, resourceful, and healthy then what is happening on the outside is manageable. Things as goals are only a means to feelings. Think about it.

(2)  Realize that as things speed up I  shall need to journey inside for answers. Find quiet time to meditate. Learn to trust my intuition. Practice.  Even if the outcome seems to be awful in the short run it may have delivered me to just the right place. Be patient.

(3) Become more familiar with synchronicities. These are meaningful coincidences. We live in a much more complex world than we can even imagine. But we are given glimpses of how other realities intersect and can help us. These are like signs which tell us we are on the right or wrong path.

(4) Simplify and lighten up my life. If I have too many things and obligations, then the things and obligations start running my life. I used to have no storage space. now I have storage lockers or containers in three cities. I’m working on reducing this. The old paradigm was “Time is money.” The new paradigm is, “Money is time.” If I have too much stuff and obligations then I will constantly be using the new wealth to manage those demands. Is that what I really want to do?

(5) Make technology my friend. it is our way of being ever more connected and included.

Senior wisdom

My psychiatrist buddy, kerry Monick, who lives in Austrailia sent me this engaging piece by a 90 year old woman, and I decided to simply post it. People who are in their nineties have the perspective and wisdom that comes with having engaged life for so long. My mother just passed a way this year at 99 and I am sure she could have said most of what is said below but didn’t.

Written by Regina BRETT, 90-years-old.

This is something we should all read at least once a week!

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once
more:

1.        Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2.        When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3.        Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
Change the way you think.

4.        Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick.
Your friends and family will.
Stay in touch.

5.        Pay off your credit cards every month.

6.        You don’t have to win every argument.
Agree to disagree.

7.        Cry with someone.
It’s more healing than crying alone.

8.        Release your children when they become adults… it’s their life now!

9.        Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque.

10.      When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11.      Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12.      It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13.      Don’t compare your life to others.
You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14.      If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15.      Everything can change in the blink of an eye.

16.      Take a deep breath It calms the mind.

17.      Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

18.      Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19.      It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20.      When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21.      Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don’t save it for a special occasion.
Today is special.

22.      Just because you believe you are right, doesn’t mean you are.
Keep an open mind.

23.      Be eccentric now.
Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24.      The most important sex organ is the brain.

25.      No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26.      Frame every so-called disaster with these words:  ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27.      Always choose life.

28.      Forgive everyone everything.

29.      What other people think of you is none of your business.

30.      Time heals almost everything.
Give time time.

31.      However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32.      Don’t take yourself so seriously.
No one else does.

33.      Believe in miracles.

34.      Your job is to love your children, not choose who they should love.

35.      Don’t audit life.
Show up and make the most of it now.

36.      Growing old beats the alternative… dying young.

37.      Your children get only one childhood.

38.      All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39.      Get outside every day.
Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40.      If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41.      Envy is a waste of time.
You already have all you need.

42.      The best is yet to come…

43.      No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44.      Yield.

45.      Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Its estimated 93% won’t forward this.
If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title ’7%’.

I’m in the 7%.

white hole

We have much more control over the nature of our lives than we might think if we employ the right decision making tactics in the beginning of major undertakings in life.

Part of being on a non-linear adventure is that you never know what will show up to influence you. I ran across this article called Viewpoint by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame. He says, ” You are what you learn. If all you know is how to be a gang member that’s what you will be.,  at least until you learn something else. If you go to law school you’ll see the world as competition. If you study engineering, you’ll see the world as a complicated machine that needs tweaking.  His point is that we can make decisions about where we want to apply our minds and like a key that unlocks a portal into that world. As you venture deeper into the world of your chosen experiences you will be enveloped in the nature of those worlds.

I don’t think that many of us think about it that way, but it does seem to be the reality.  So what’s the take away? read more »

As a friend of mine, Terence Mckenna, the well known ethnobotanist and psychedelic explorer, once said, ” The world is not just strange. It is stranger than strange.” I found myself at a dinner party last night on my current travels.  At the table the topic of John of God came up as one of the guests had had a family member who had gone to see him.  It was one of those made to order moments as years ago I had gone to Brazil with a group who had been invited to meet with John of God.

I had not thought about this encounter for quite some time. As you may or may not know the psychic surgeons do their work in the etheric field. The mind, however, needs to encounter something it cannot believe but must because it is confronted with a reality to which it has no reference. I vividly recalled standing in the line and  watching those in front of me have cataracts removed with exacto blades. A few had four inch hemostats pushed through a nostril into their brains, and they quietly passed out in to the hands of assistants who would take them to the recovery room. I wondered what was in store for me read more »

I try now to wait until there is an urge before I write a post. I don’t know what is going to  appear or when. I am traveling now and during this last two weeks I have seen two interesting movies. Both have to do with conscious decision making centered around values that are being challenged.

One was Ides of March about a political campaign in which the stakes are high and so are the temptations. Issues of fear, failure, loyalty, betrayal, innocence, and ruthlessness parade across the screen leaving the viewer  witnessing that in the end some survive, get what they want, but nobody emerges happy or really satisfied. The second movie was called Margin Call. It portrays the decisions made in an investment banking firm after it is found that it’s risk management model has gone seriously defective making the firm insolvent, but not before the firm can peddle worthless securities to save itself.  Although it is different situation it reveals much of the same. The stakes are high and so are the temptations. Issues of fear, failure, loyatly, betrayal, innocence and ruthlessness again parade across the screen again showing that in the end some survive, but nobody emerges happy or really satisfied. In both movies  the issues of ethics, the moral compass, and higher human values are pitted against fear, survival, and a false sense of power. What makes the stories so gripping is that we all sense how real they actually might be in portraying  the scenes that are unfolding in our political and financial worlds.  None of the characters in either film at the end of the day are happy. The power and money did not seem that satisfying.  It wasn’t that long ago that our archetypal heroes could do the right thing knowing that what looked like imminent disaster would be worth it, leading us to a better state of mind and a better world. Interestingly, as I watched these movies I realized that none of these characters seemed like they would have been introspective enough to ask , “How can I be happier?”

Perhaps that is the great challenge of the times now. We are forgetting our own true personal power and that the pursuit of happiness always seems to have been a major goal of humanity.

I woke up thinking about a fellow I met years ago. He told me that every day he made it a point to do at least one nice thing for somebody. It didn’t have to be a biggie, just a conscious effort. In so doing I think it adds to our well being and if you believe in karma, those little things add up returning to us in the form of pleasant surprises and adding to our levels of daily satisfaction and well-being.

perhaps as our institutions are in the process of morphing into something else and nothing looks too stable we may consciously want to decide to simply be happier. This, at least in my mind, is where the true creative thinking takes place.

I thought there were any number of psychological pathways to the often illusive goal of happiness, but now I see there is actually a pill you can take.

Random or Related?

Today more than ever, I think the idea is  to consciously pay attention to the subtle things.  I call this creative thinking in the largest sense. Get used to recognizing that an organizing force is behind these developments. It may be more you than you think at first glance.  For example  I have currently been  staying with my brother and his partner. She and I both have come down with a mild flu. In the process she asked me yesterday  if I would go by the health food store and pick up some bulk camomile. Having rrived I found that the bulk container was completely out.  Later that day I ran into a lady friend who said, ” I hear that your household is looking for some bulk camomile. I was at the health food store and found that the camomile had been misclassified and was in a different location. Here is a bag for you.”  At one level, you could say that this was  just somebody being nice, somebody learning that we were looking for something and then purposely taking on the challenge to find it.  This goes on all of the time in everybody’s lives. Most of the time if we are the recipients, we say, “Thank you,” and give it no more thought.

I think the message is this: read more »

What happens when there is blood in the water?

It takes conscious decision making to think for yourself and to begin to see that things are not what they seem to be. The fish in this photo look to be docile enough. With a drop of blood in the water, they turn into ferocious killers. That is clear. The danger can be foreseen.

During world war one there was the hideous use of mustard gas. It could not be easily seen, and then before one knew it troops were gagging  to a hideous death.  It was so horrible that nations came together to ban it as a form of warfare.  Are we now seeing a more sophisticated form of the same? read more »

Moving towards pertubation

I have been writing about many factors which affect the way we think and act in our greater decision making arena.  In this regard  I have classified  many of the ideas as forms of creative thinking. My psychiatrist friend told me once that what her profession really does is seek to offer more useful points of view than her patients possess.

Einstein basically said that we cannot solve the great problems with the same degree of consciousness that we used to create them. The question, how do we acquire that consciousness? read more »